A&M suspends two starters ahead of opener

Posted by John Taylor on August 25, 2013, 12:44 AM EDT

AP

And, no, neither of them answers to a nickname that rhymes with “Schmonny Schmootball.”

Texas A&M athletic director Eric Hyman — and not head coach Kevin Sumlin — announced Saturday night that cornerback Deshazor Everett and safety Floyd Raven have received punitive measures from the football program that will cost them game time. Specifically, Raven has been suspended for the entire opener against Rice, while Everett has been suspended for the first half of that game.

Both players had been indefinitely suspended following a late May arrest related to an incident in early April, but returned for summer camp.

In that incident, it’s alleged that both players beat on two males and a Chevy Tahoe after a bar beef spilled over to an apartment complex confrontation. Everett and Raven were ultimately charged with two counts each of assault causing bodily injury.

Everett started 12 games in 2012, rising to fame after intercepting an AJ McCarron fourth-and-goal pass that helped seal the Aggies’ upset of Alabama. Raven played in 13 games in 2012 as a cornerback, but won the starting job after moving to safety during spring practice.

Raven and Everett actually serve as the second and third A&M defensive starters suspended for the opener. Earlier this month, Sumlin announced that defensive lineman Kirby Ennis is suspended for the opener following his arrest on a gun-related charge. Ennis started 11 games last season for the Aggies.

It’s clear that those of you commenting don’t actually know what happened…the two players got in a “disagreement” with some punks at a bar and decided to leave. They were then followed to their apartment and confronted by said punks. When said punks got their butts handed to them, they went and cried to the police. This situation is nothing compared to Jeremy Hill’s, yet he gets off without missing any playing time, how do you explain that?

The two football players make a mistake on a celebration in a club and they are vilified.

Doing a cursory look on actually what happened produced this story from the Bryan College Station Eagle, dated July 1, 2013.
__________________

Two Texas A&M football players accused of assault in an April fight turned themselves in to authorities today, according to law enforcement officials.

Deshazor Dantee Everett, 21, and Floyd Raven Sr., 20, each face two counts of assault causing bodily injury , a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. Warrants issued Friday state that both also will be charged with one count of criminal mischief, also a Class A misdemeanor.

Raven reported to the Brazos County Jail about 11 a.m. and was released at 12:27 p.m. on $12,000 bail. Everett showed up two hours after Raven and was released at 3:16 p.m. after his $15,000 bail was set.

Alan Cannon, director of sports information for the A&M Athletic Department, released a statement this afternoon, saying the student athletes are suspended from all team activities pending further investigation into the situation. That’s a department policy since Athletic Director Eric Hyman started a year ago Sunday.

Court documents state that the two football players were among a group of 10 to 12 men who “attacked” two people as they climbed out of a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe at an apartment complex off Harvey Mitchell Parkway early April 7.

The fight apparently started at Hookah Station, a bar at Northgate, according to the documents that detail how the altercation started when the two football players sprayed champagne into the crowd. Pushing and shoving ensued but before a fight started it was broken up by College Station police and bouncers at the club, according to the arrest report.

Not long after, the same group upset about the champagne pulled into the parking lot of the driver’s apartment complex where Everett also lived, police said. That’s when the group attacked two of the men who got out of the Tahoe, according to the police report, which offers statements from several other witnesses at the scene.

At least four other people were in the Tahoe, including a woman who jumped out to help but was pushed back in by one of the attackers, the report states. The driver of the Tahoe pulled away from the fight after it was apparent they’d be overpowered, police said.

The arrest report states that Everett admitted to police that he and Raven were involved in the altercation at Hookah Station and that when they later saw the men from the bar pull up to Everett’s complex they were going to “finish what they started at the bar.”

Everett told police that he was about to fight one of the men who got out of the car, but someone else punched him in the face and the man fell to the ground. The report states that Everett told police he and Raven ran back to his apartment in the same complex.

He said he didn’t know any of the other men in the group that approached the Tahoe just before 3 a.m., according to the report.

Everett and Raven were the only two in the crowd that the victims could identify, the report states.

Both men from the SUV received injuries, including one who suffered a fractured sinus cavity and orbital bruises, the report states. The other man said his ribs hurt, along with his hand, police wrote in the report.

More than $500 in damage was caused to a Tahoe when the student athletes pounded and kicked the vehicle at the scene of the fight, the documents state.

Everett, a junior cornerback from DeRidder, La., drew national attention when he intercepted a fourth-and-goal pass by Alabama’s A.J. McCarron with less than two minutes left in A&M’s 29-24 upset victory in November.

Raven, a senior safety from Kenner, La., had 16 tackles in 13 games last season.

Both players came out of spring drills listed as starters on the team’s depth chart.

Coach Kelly sends a student videographer to his death. Tears are shed, ND shows up at the funeral, the wailing and gnashing of a young life snuffed out way too young.Notre Dame quietly settles with the family and seals the records. ND pays $28k in OSHA and Indiana fines and says ‘There’s nothing more to see here!, move along!”

In the midst of last fall’s Heisman run, ND finds out that their mental midget, Manti Te’o’s blow up girl friend isn’t dead, she’s a he and their reputation would be tarnished on a catfish prank. What does ND do? Play up the death of his grandmother and blow up girl friend in order to reward a mediocre player with a Heisman run to “wake up up the echos!” Only when the University is going to be embarrassed big time does ND decide to jettison Teo to the media. Again, ND protecting the brand.

Lizzy Seeberg is dead because of ND. Has the President of Notre Dame even talked to Lizzy Seeberg’s parents? Nope, because he has to have “pausible deniability” so he can’t hurt the brand.

Notre Dame protects it’s brand, first and foremost.

That is why the National Championship game was so so rewarding. It exposed Te’o
as a fraud of a player and showed that ND isn’t any where near a top echelon program.

Everything you are saying are rumors and hersay, no provable facts. All spread by ND haters that have been jealous of what ND stands for many, many years.

I had two children attend ND and I know how it really is, as a learning institution and an athletic program.

Go ahead and make up story after story. I notice that you didn’t address my comment about Golson being kicked out of school. Do you think that would have happened at an SEC school?

If ND kicks out their starting QB for an academic infraction, don’t you think they would kick a student out for sexual assualt if it were true?

Have some common sense why don’t you!

Stop hating and be a real football fan!

dhardy8207 says:Aug 25, 2013 3:56 PM

First the Monte Te’o story is just weird and yes smells fishy…

1) Who’s girlfriend dies and they don’t attend the funeral? You know that would have been the time to find out the whole thing was a hoax.

2) His father goes on an interview to try and defend and states “We’ve met her”! WTH?!?! If she was a ficticious charachter that he only talked to online, how does the family meet her?

3) When the President of Notre Dumb held a press conference in support of Te’o, he said they were certain that there would be a reasonable explaination of how this occurred, yet everyone developed a severe case of lock jaw when public concensus became this was a made up story of an overrated football player.

If John Boy hadn’t one the heisman nor had they lucked out (yes I said lucked out) and won the BAMA game, these young men would probably not get preferential treatment. After all if you don’t penalize your QB, you know the leader of your team for his bad behavior off the field you can’t very well come down hard on the other players.

ND did exactly what I expected them to do with Golson. Anything less and I would have been disappointed in the school. It really amazes me how these elite athletes do really, really, stupid things to damage their, what could be, bright future.

As far as Teo is concerned, he was just duped on the Internet. Just as many other people have. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fact #1
Lizzy Seeberg is dead. Joe Power, a well heeled plaintiff attorney out of Chicago who just happened to be connected to the ND football program is retained to represent Shembo AND ND.

Who paid his retainer? If you say that he did it gratis, that is a MAJOR NCAA infraction in extending extra ordinary benefits in excess of the normal grant in aid outlined in the NCAA guidelines on student athletes. Does ND make a top tier attorney available to every ND who merely faces an allegation of a crime?
So a third year business student has access to Joe Powers to represent him on a crime on a gratis basis? You know the answer to that is a resounding NO!

Fact#2
Coach Kelly must be a moron if he himself could not ascertain the weather conditions at his own practice facility, particularly how high the winds were that day. How does a Coach knowingly send a person to their death when common sense tell you not to do it? Coach Kelly continues practice when the
video stand falls down and only when he is told that the kid died express remorse? Puh-leeze…..ND protects the brand at all cost. If ND was so intent on NOT protecting the brand , then why doesn’t ND unilaterally allow the settlement information out on a FoI request? ND would never do that , because they have to protect the brand.

Fact#3

Dhardy posted succinctly in his post the Te’o situation

dhardy8207 wrote: Aug 25, 2013 3:56 PM

First the Monte Te’o story is just weird and yes smells fishy…

1) Who’s girlfriend dies and they don’t attend the funeral? You know that would have been the time to find out the whole thing was a hoax.

2) His father goes on an interview to try and defend and states “We’ve met her”! WTH?!?! If she was a fictitious character that he only talked to online, how does the family meet her?

3) When the President of Notre Dumb held a press conference in support of Te’o, he said they were certain that there would be a reasonable explanation of how this occurred, yet everyone developed a severe case of lock jaw when public consensus became this was a made up story of an overrated football player.

Simple answer, The President of Notre Dame, like the Lizzy Seeberg death, kept his mouth shut to protect the ND brand. Ask the Seberg family, who have multi-generational graduates of ND and St Mary’s (9 grads) what they believe of ND.

These are all hard FACTS that ND supporters like yourself say are hearsay and rumor.

I chose not to comment on Golson because that is the ultimate ND example of protecting the brand. With all the sheltered courses, instructors and tutors available to ND football athletes, Why did ND choose to announce that Golson was kicked out of school AFTER the national championship game when the results were know right after the course was filed with the Register’s Office and the Dean of Student Affairs?

Oh, that’s right……it’s all rumor and hearsay.

Saban at Alabama immediately dismissed 4 players from the football team and let them face their day in Court. No cover up from the President of the University, no high price attorney made immediately available to a football player, No outside pressure on police officials or the DA’s office. No private investigators hired on behalf of the University to look into people’s
backgrounds.

Alabama is completely different from ND, they have people actually be held ACCOUNTABLE
for their actions, not covered up.

Same guy, many “stage names” out here bashing ND. This is not about ND, it is about A & M. As for ND; they went 12-0, got bashed by UA as I predicted and many others did and that is that. Move on “man/boy/girl of many faces.”

Already have a REAL football team to support, you may remember them from all the footprints all over your ND team from the National Championship game.

10of14, na, have one moniker and very secure in my manhood. Could be that there are many people that do not like Notre Dame. Personally, I had enjoyed Notre Dame until Ara Parseghian left in 1974. What started me questioning Notre Dame was when six ND football players were accused of rape in 1973. Parseghain kicked them off the team over the objections of alums and supporters. The players were never formally charged, just asked to leave the school. ND protecting the brand.

Parseghain left at the top of his game, but don’t mess with ND football.

One of my children was an athlete at ND and what you are describing is as far from the truth as can be. The more ND haters that I listen to on this site, the more I just shake my head and laugh.

By the way, no one is going to take away 12 well earned victories last year. Not even after being beaten convincingly by Bama. When I was at the NC game, I talked to many Bama fans and was pleasently surprised by the friendliness of Alabama’s fans before and after the game.

Congrats on your child being an athlete at ND, I’m sure that you are proud of their accomplishments as any parent would be. That being said, I had two sons recruited to play football at ND. They chose two different schools because they did not like the football culture they were exposed to on recruiting trips at ND, Michigan and Texas. The schools that they ultimately chose were for academics and not football, Cal for physics and Georgia Tech for mechanical engineering.

I did not attend the National Championship game due to the death of a lady that
was my life. She was my focus and allowed the both of us to enjoy over 44 years of University and College experiences that shaped a wonderful life. East Coast, West Coast, it didn’t matter as long as we were together attending far too many
college football games. This season will be the first without her

So I speak from a deep, personal knowledge and business experience. I don’t hate ND. I don’t hate Texas. Let’s just say that I have seen the underbelly of the beast and it is not pretty.

Notre Dame, like Texas, wants a clean,positive image to present to the consuming public. It worked well in the 30’s and 40’s. It won’t work today in the
social media frenzy of 24/7/365.

As to Texas A&M,Is Johnny Manziel guilty? Probably. We’ll probably never know because I don’t see the memorabilia brokers admitting that they paid Manziel because of the multimillion dollar lawsuits that Texas A&M will file in both State and Federal Court to recoup losses to their University. An IRS audit is a separate creature.

And yes I will enjoy ND football and I will not follow them blindly but I will follow them for all of the great things that I see happening at ND now and in the past.

I only wish other fans could have such an experience.

dhardy8207 says:Sep 11, 2013 11:40 AM

@ttalarico

While I agree with you that many people fall victim to some type of internet scam, I think where Teo’s story gets tainted is the statements made by his father and others of having an occassion to meet said scam in person. I have two sons and can even understand a parent trying to pertect their son’s reputation, however, he couldn’t have believed sincerely that joining in to give life or validity to the sob story that was given to the press….

dhardy8207 says:Sep 11, 2013 11:52 AM

@ttalarico

(continued from previous post) he couldn’t have believed sincerely that joining in to give life or validity to the sob story given to the press would eventually not come out to be a scam..

@amosalanzostaggs:

“These are all hard FACTS that ND supporters like yourself say are hearsay and rumor.”